Roller-bearing



(No Model.) I 5 Sheets-Sheet 2.

G. D. MENEELY J; G'rIIBIBONS.v

ROLLER BEARING!- No. 400,471. Patented Apr. 2, 1889.

. I D 5 Shee 5 Sheet 3.

G. D. MENEELY & J. GIBBONS.

' ROLLER BEARING;

Patented Apr. 2, 1889.

MTNESEEE.

. I v M J D. N PETERS. PholoLRhngnphur Wahmglun. n c

UNITED STATES FFICE.

PATENT CHARLES D. MENEELY, OF ALBANY, AND JOHN GIBBONS, OF VEST TROY, ASSIGNORS TO THE MENEELYBEARING COMPANY, OF VEST TROY, NEV

YORK.

ROLLER-BEARING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 400,471, dated April 2, 1889.

Application filed "November 19, 1888. Serial No. 291,197. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that We, CHARLES D. MEN-EELY, of the city of Albany, county of Albany, and State of New York, and JOHN GIBBoNs, of

5 the village of West Troy, county and State aforesaid, have jointly invented new and useful Improvements in Roller-Bearin gs, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to improvements upon that class of axle-bearings which are madewith friction-rollers having journaled ends and intermediately placed separatingrollers that are arranged to engage with the friction-roller journals and run upon an in- I terior track, with afguidering encompassing said separating-rollers or equalizers and the frictionrollers; and our improvement thereon has for its object a new construction and arrangement of the friction-rollers and separating-rollers encompassing ring and inner track, to better adapt this class of devices to be run upon the axles of railway passengercars without lubricant, and to combine with these parts so improved and arranged a 2 5 means to take-up and sustain the end-thrust of the axle without frictional engagement and the necessity of lubricant.

To take up the end-thrust as heretofore made, this class of roller-bearings has been constructed to contain two guide-rings that project inwardly from the inner surface of the bearing-box, so as to enter and engage with grooves made to encircle the frictionrollers at each end, wherein the rings make a frictional engagement with the sides of the roller-grooves, but the production of which grooves andtheir engagement with the rings necessitated the use of lubricant, and reduced the bearing-surface of the friction-rollers to circular disk or plate that turned with the axle in a fiat circular chamber, against the outer surface of which interior chamber the disk or plate abutted to take up the endsuch an extent that it weakened their ca-i thrust of the axle, and this construction to be operated successfully required"lubricant.

To improve upon this means to take up the end-thrust of the axle is one of the objects of our invention, and this we accomplish by projecting the axle beyond the friction-rollers and make an encircling groove therein with a coinciding groove in the axle-cap, so as to form in the combined axle and cap a circular tube-form passage-way in which is placed a single ball that turns therein to take 6 said rollers, instead of at one side of said groove, and so that where said separating. rollers are arranged at each end of the bearing between each two of the friction-roller journals they shall be operated by the latter to run independently and without any connection with each other. \Vhen these separating-rollers or equalizers are connected by an intermediate bar, or when the separatingrollers extend from end to end of the bearing, they take up room and from necessity 8o reduce and limit the number of friction-rollers, so as to unfit the bearing for use in connection with the axles of railway passengercars, inwhich more supporting capacity is required to resist and sustain theheavy crushing-strain upon the rollers.

Accompanying this specification to form a part of it there are five plates of drawings containin g eight figures illustrating our invention, with the same designation of parts 0 by letter-reference used in all of them.

Of these illustrations, Figure 1 shows alongitudinal central vertical section of the journal-box and its end cap parts, the inside tracks for the separating-rollers, and the ring which 5 encompasses the friction-roller journals and the separating-rollers, with two of the friction-rollers and a separating-roller shown as back of the journals of the friction-rollers, and with the axle shown also in side elevation. Fig. 2 shows a side elevation of our improved bearing with a vertically-(livided half of the journal-box removed,the cap shown in vertical section and the end-thrust ball within the tube-form passage shown in elevation. Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken on the line a: an of Fig. 1. Fig. i is a side elevation of one of the friction-rollers, illustrated as removed from the bearing-box. Fig. 5 is a side elevation of one of the scparati ng-rollers. shown as removed from the bearing-box. Fig. 6 is a section of the axle-cap, showing the circular groove made therein, which, in connection with a like groove made in the axle, produces the circular tube-form passage-way for the end-thrust ball. Fig. 7 shows a plan view of one of the inside tracks on which the separating-rollers run. Fig. 8 shows a section taken on the line .11 x of Fig. 7.

The several parts of the mechanism thus illustrated are designated by letter-reference, and the function of the parts is described as follows:

The letter A designates the axle", B, the bearing-box; C, the outer end cap of the axlebox, made in two parts, 0 c, that are connected by bolts Z) and lugs L.

The letters R designate the friction-rollers, which at each of their ends are made with journals J, having a less diameter than the rollers proper. Each of these journals J is made with an encircling groove, g.

The letters R designate the separatingrollers or equalizers, which are made to have a length that is a little less than the journals of the friction-rollers, and each of these separating-rollers is con strncted with an encircling groove,

The letter T designates a track formed within the bearing-box at each end of the latter, so as to encompass the axle, but not to come in contact with it. Each of these track parts is projected inwardly from the end of the bearing-box, so as to be a little shorter than the journals of the friction-rollers. The track part at the outer end of the axle is formed on the inside of the cap part c", and the track part on the inner end of the bearing-box is held in position by the sleeve S.

The letter 0 designates a guide-ring, of which there is one at each end of thebearing. These rings are made to be passed on over the separating-rollers and to run in the grooves made in the latter.

The parts thus described operate connectedly as follows: The friction-rollers R are placed at intervals between the inner surface of the bearing-box and the exterior surface of the axle at such distance apart as to avoid contact, with one of the separating-rollers R at each end of the bearing between each two of the friction-roller journals, so as to engage with the latter and to iun on the end track parts at each side of the encircling groove made in the bearing-face of said separatingrollers, and to turn with the same direction of axial rotation as the axle. The rings 0, being passed on over the separating-rollers at each end of the bearing and placed within the grooves of the separating-rollers at their outer surface, serve to keep the separatingrollers in position and in engagement with the friction-roller journals, so that the latter and the separating-rollers act conncctedly. The groove made in the journals of the triotion-rollers is merely for the passage of the rings without contact therewith. The diameters of the friction-roller journals are so proportioned relatively to the diameters of the separating-rellers that the separating-rollers shall make one circuit of the inside track while the friction-rollers are making one complete circuit of the interior of the bearingbox.

The letter G designates a groove made in the outer end of the axle, where projecting beyond the journal-box proper, and G a circular groove correspondingly made in the cap parts 0 0 so that when the cap parts are connected with each other and to the journalbox there is formed in the combined cap and axle the circular tube-form passage P, one sectional half of which is made in the cap parts and the other half in the axle.

The letter B designates a ball having a diameter a little less than the cross-area of the tube-form passage P, which ball is placed in the latter. As thus arranged and constructed, when the ei'id-thrust of the axle occurs this ball rotates in a direction that is coincident with the direction of the thrust-impulse, so as to take up the latter by partly turning in the passage P, while the friction-roller, separating-rollers, and rings move together and connectedly with the axle.

Ve are aware that a groove has been made in an axle and combined cap where the axle projected beyond the bearing-box, as in the Letters Patent to I Ialloway of January 8, 1800,

and in which a series of balls were used in.

such a circular passage, and where the balls would be in contact with each other and require lubricant that was arranged to be supplied by a passage-way through the cap. By using but one ball instead of several, the single ball is free to rest in the bottom of the passage from the action of gravity and where it will take up the end-thrust, as before described, and run without lubricant, which could not occur were several balls used instead of one.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is V 1. The combination,with a car-axle and an axle-box, of anti-friction rollers having end journal-bearin gs smaller than the body of the rollers and formed with annular grooves in said bearings, interior tube-form tracks surrounding the axle at each end, separatingrollers-formed with annular grooves and arranged at each end of the anti-friction rollers between the journal ends of the same, and a guide-ring arranged circumferentially about the journal ends of the anti-friction rollers and the separatingrollers and within the grooves in the same, substantially as described. p

. 2. The combination, with abearing-box that is made with an interior track at each end, and constructed with a cap at its outer end containing interiorly an encircling concave groove, substantially as described, of an axle made with an encircling concave groove at its outer end arranged to be in line with and cor-' respond in reversed and opposite concavity with the groove made in the cap, an end-thrust ball arranged within the coincidently-made grooves of the cap and axle, friction-rollers having grooved and journaled ends arranged between the inner surface of said bearing-box and axle, a separating-roller having a grooved roller-face arranged at each end of the bearing between each two of the friction-roller journals and the adjacent end track, and a ring made to encompass said separating-rollers and to be within the grooves thereof, substantially in the manner as and for the purposes set forth.

3. The combination, with the axle A, made with the encircling-grooves G, of the bearing-box B, made with the cap C, having the interiorencircling-groo ve, G and the interior end tracks, T T, the end-thrust ball, B arranged within the eoincidently-placed grooves of the axle and bearing box cap, the frictionrollers R, made with end journals, J, arranged between said axle and bearing box, and the separating-rollers R each made with the groove g with one of said separatingrollers arranged between each two of the friction-roller journals, and the adjacent inside track at each end of the bearing, and the rings 0 at each end of the bearing within the grooves of the separating-rollers, substantially in the manner as and for the purposes set forth.

Signed at Troy, New York, this 15th day of October, 1888, and in the presence of the two witnesses whose names are hereto written.

CHAS. D. MENEELY. JOHN GIBBONS. 

